The Decameron movie storyline. An adaptation of nine stories from Bocaccio’s “Decameron”: A young man from Perugia is swindled twice in Naples, but ends up rich; a man poses as a deaf-mute in a convent of curious nuns; a woman must hide her lover when her husband comes home early; a scoundrel fools a priest on his deathbed; three brothers take revenge on their sister’s lover; a young girl sleeps on the roof to meet her boyfriend at night; a group of painters wait for inspiration; a crafty priest attempts to seduce his friend’s wife; and two friends make a pact to find out what happen= s after death. Pasolini is up to his old tricks satirizing the Church, and throwing in liberal doses of life and love.
The Decameron (Italian: Il Decameron) is a 1971 film by Italian director Pier Paolo Pasolini, based on the novel Il Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio. It is the first movie of Pasolini’s Trilogy of life, the others being The Canterbury Tales and Arabian Nights. The tales contain abundant nudity, sex, slapstick and scatological humor. The film was entered into the 21st Berlin International Film Festival, where it won the Silver Bear Extraordinary Jury Prize.
About the Story
The film, shot in Neapolitan dialect at the behest of the director, offers a variety of episodes from the stories most characteristic of the work of Giovanni Boccaccio, and are linked through a pupil of the painter Giotto (played by Pasolini himself) who arrives in Naples to paint a mural.
In the first episode, Andreuccio of Perugia is cheated by a Neapolitan and dropped in a trough of excrement. The young man is found in the pulp by two thieves who are attempting a coup at a nearby church to steal the jewels from the tomb of a bishop who died a few days earlier. Andreuccio is persuaded and, with a brilliant ruse, manages to steal for himself the most beautiful ring of the deceased.
In the second episode, a young man, Masetto da Lamporecchio, is encouraged by some nuns in a convent to have sex with them. In fact, the young man already had this idea, pretending to be deaf and dumb. But the sisters prove insatiable, and the young man finally breaks his silence to protest that he cannot keep up with their demands. The mother prioress declares his sudden ability to speak a miracle from God, but this is merely an excuse to keep the young man at the convent.
In the third episode, the commoner Peronella makes a cuckold of her dimwitted husband. While she is having sex with a lover, her husband unexpectedly comes home for a holiday. The other man hides in a large pot while the husband reveals that he has a buyer for the pot with him. Peronella quickly says that she already has a buyer and that he’s inspecting the pot. The husband accepts this and goes to the pot room where the stranger says the inside of the pot is dirty. The wife tells the husband to clean it before selling it, and while he is inside the pot, his wife and her lover loudly and passionately copulate next to it. The husband remains oblivious.
In the fourth episode, set in France, Ser Ciappelletto, a merchant, is sent to make a deal. For most of his life, he devoted his soul to sin, seduction and profit, disregarding all moral and ethical values. In fact, God punishes him with a serious illness that forces him to the bed and eventually death. But Ciappelletto wants to confess and calls a monk to tell several lies. Because of these lies, they consider making him a saint. After his death, Ciappelletto is revered as a martyr.
In the fifth episode, a young woman meets with her lover on a terrace to plan a fraud against her parents and makes love with him there. The next morning the parents of the girl find the two lovers naked, but recognise the boy as a good match, as his marriage would earn a significant amount of money through dowry, and allow their daughter to marry him.
In the sixth episode, set in Sicily, a girl, Elizabeth, attractive and possessing great wealth, falls in love with Lorenzo, a young employee of her brothers. However, her brothers discover their love and conspire to murder Lorenzo in order to save their family’s honor. They bury Lorenzo’s body far from home but Elizabeth is led to the corpse of her beloved through a dream. When Elizabeth finds the body, she cuts off his head and brings it back to her bedroom where she hides Lorenzo’s head inside a pot of basil that she tends to every day.
The Decameron (1971)
Directed by: Pier Paolo Pasolini
Starring: Franco Citti, Ninetto Davoli, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Jovan Jovanovic, Vincenzo Amato, Angela Luce, Giuseppe Zigaina, Maria Gabriella Maione, Vincenzo Cristo, Giorgio Iovine
Screenplay by: Pier Paolo Pasolini
Cinematography by: Tonino Delli Colli
Film Editing by: Nino Baragli, Tatiana Casini Morigi
Costume Design by: Danilo Donati
Set Decoration by: Andrea Fantacci
Art Direction by: Dante Ferretti
Music by: Ennio Morricone
MPAA Rating: R for sensuality, and for some language.
Distributed by: United Artists
Release Date: December 12, 1971
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